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Pedro González de Mendoza
From the longer Wikipedia pagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Gonz%C3%A1lez_de_Mendoza Pedro González de Mendoza (May 3, 1428 – January 11, 1495) was a Spanish cardinal and statesman. In 1452 at the age of twenty-four, he was chosen by the king John II to be bishop of Calahorra, but did not receive the pope's bull till 1454. As bishop of Calahorra he was also señor, or civil and military ruler, of the town and its dependent district. In his secular capacity he led the levies of Calahorra in the civil wars of the reign of Henry IV. He fought for the king at the second battle of Olmedo on August 20, 1467, and was wounded in the arm. During these years he became attached to Mencia de Lemos, a Portuguese lady-in-waiting of the Consort queen. She bore him two sons, Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar Mendoza, who was once selected to be the husband of Lucrezia Borgia, and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, 1st Count of Melito who became the grandfather of the princess of Eboli of the reign of Philip II of Spain (see Antonio Perez). By Inés de Tovar, a lady of a Valladolid family, he had a third son (Juan Hurtado de Mendoza y Tovar) who afterwards emigrated to France. In 1468 Pedro became Bishop of Sigüenza. In 1473 he was created cardinal, was promoted to the Archdiocese of Seville and named chancellor of Castile. During the last years of the reign of King Henry IV. he was the partisan of the Princess Isabella, afterwards queen, while his eldest brother Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, 2nd marquis of Santillana, remained however faithful to king Henry IV of Castile, till his death in December 1474. Pedro, the cadet brother, fought for her at the Battle of Toro on March 1, 1476 when King Henry IV had died already. He had a prominent part in placing her on the throne; and served her indefatigably in her efforts to suppress the disorderly nobles of Castile. In 1482 he became Archbishop of Toledo. When his oldest brother and head of the whole family, Diego, swore allegiance to Princess Isabella after Henry's death in December 1474, he was duly rewarded by Queen Isabella I of Castile, awarding Diego the title of Duke of the Infantado on 22 July 1475. The title would be awarded the Grandee of Spain in 1519 by king Charles I of Spain. During the conquest of Granada Pedro contributed largely to the maintenance of the army. On January 2, 1492 he occupied the town in the name of the Catholic sovereigns. Though his life was worldly, and though he was more soldier and statesman than priest, the "Great Cardinal", as he was commonly called, did not neglect his duty as a bishop. He used his influence with the queen and also at Rome to arrange a settlement of the disputes between the Spanish sovereigns and the papacy. He was also an advocate of Christopher Columbus. Though he maintained a splendid household as archbishop of Toledo, and, provided handsomely for his children, he devoted part of his revenue to charity, and a part he endowed the college of Santa Cruz at Valladolid University. His health broke down at the close of 1493. Queen Isabella visited and nursed him on his deathbed in Guadalajara. It is said that he recommended her to choose as his successor the Franciscan Jimenez de Cisneros, a man who had no likeness to himself save in political faculty and devotion to the authority of the Crown. The Spanish Wikipedia page is https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Gonz%C3%A1lez_de_Mendoza_(cardenal) and the Wikimedia Commons category is https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Pedro_Gonz%C3%A1lez_de_Mendoza Category:Cardinals Category:Spain